Lewis, Daniel; Flores, Andrew; Haider-Markel, Donald; Miller, Patrick; Tadlock, Barry; Taylor, Jami K
description
As the Department of Defense, the Trump administration and the courts review policies regarding transgender people in the military, public opinion is likely a significant factor shaping eventual policy outputs. As such, this study examines the factors that shape public attitudes toward transgender military service. Based on recent literature, we theorize that personal experience (with the military and with transgender people), values, personality predispositions, gender norms, and religion are likely to influence attitudes on this issue. We test these hypotheses using data from a unique October 2015 national survey of American adults. Our results provide support for a number of our hypotheses and suggest that gender norms, religion, and personal experience play substantial roles in driving attitudes towards transgender military service.
